With the pervasiveness of live streaming platforms, global audiences have no patience for poor quality video. Today’s expectations focus on low-latency, instant live stream access, and a compelling user experience.
Businesses that don’t have the technology in place to deliver content effectively can’t stay competitive. Whether it’s a large-scale live event, a real-time gaming stream, or a major sports broadcast, live stream acceleration allows smooth, reliable, expert delivery to multiple types of viewing devices, browsers, and network connections.
Reputation
Performance is the top objective for live streaming content delivery and is directly related to protecting your brand and ensuring the future success of your business. Content delivery network providers like CDNetworks use cloud-based technology to increase network speed, reliability, and stability for destinations around the world, including remote locations.
Latency
As the world becomes more digital, a strong network infrastructure will become increasingly important. People don’t often speak to each other on the phone anymore, they use video chat. Friends connect through Google Hangouts, Discord, and other VOIP (voice over internet protocol) services. Businesses tend to use Skype or Slack chat for sharing information, creating global connections that were never before possible.
A strong infrastructure opens up opportunities for hosting meetings, delivering presentations, streaming professional gameplay, or unveiling new products for clients, vendors, no matter their location. Without reliable infrastructure, there is higher likelihood of poor streaming quality during the event, which reflects poorly on a business and its brand. When you present a high-quality stream, it sends a message to clients that you have the technology required for state-of-the-art delivery, and capacity for future demands.
A high-quality content delivery network offers delivery of live streams with very low latency. CDNetworks, for example, features an ultra-low latency of less than 1 second for live delivery, and a less-than 400 ms stream load time, allowing users anywhere in the world to instantly access a client’s live stream. This means avoiding issues such as lagging video and audio, compressed and low-quality media, stuttering, and other general interruptions. Instead, you’ll have a smooth, consistent stream with fewer issues.
Bandwidth
One of the most complicated components of network infrastructure and connectivity is bandwidth. An internet connection can only handle as much information within a specific length of time as its bandwidth allows. Low bandwidth creates slow load times and poor quality. High bandwidth, on the other hand, means faster load times, with more flexibility in the type of content you can deliver and the number of other actions you can perform simultaneously.
Think of bandwidth as a funnel. High bandwidth acts as a funnel with a large mouth and a large tube. You can input a large amount of content without worrying about the speed of the output or flow. Low bandwidth is like a funnel with a smaller mouth and tube with bits of grime and grease coating the insides. It performs the same job, but the quality of your content is compromised, takes longer to exit the funnel, and presents inferior results.
Low bandwidth compresses quality content in order to push it through faster. The higher the quality of the source, the more compression takes place, and the more noticeable the decrease in quality will be. Artifacting, stuttering, and blurriness can all occur after poorly performed compression. Higher bandwidth allows high-quality, clean content to flow through at faster speeds. The end result more closely resembles the source material. Additionally, higher bandwidth can handle numerous network requests at the same time without sacrificing speed or quality. Whether it’s operating multiple live-streams at the same time or performing a multitude of file transfers between locations, speeds and quality will not be as affected.
Live Stream Acceleration Process
For superior content delivery, a reliable infrastructure is essential regardless of location or type of stream you’re operating. You should be capable of pushing high quality audio and video to as many locations and devices as possible, in the fastest way possible. Services such as CDNetworks that provide live stream acceleration achieve this through a series of thousands of connected nodes in strategic locations around the world.
Client content is pushed in the most optimal route possible at speeds as high as 50 Tbps through these nodes, which lowers client load times and prevents a loss of quality. Additionally, these services can provide both security and stability. This is achieved through global load balancing, which blocks unauthorized access while simultaneously and subtly adjusting bitrates to ensure that as many devices can view the stream as needed.
Visit our website to check out our other acceleration offerings and additional innovations for e-commerce, media and entertainment, gaming, education, manufacturing, and other industries.
